DHL and Auchan renew partnership


DHL Global Forwarding has secured a contract renewal for continued management of Auchan’s inbound supply chain operations. Auchan Retail is the second largest supermarket operator in France, present in 16 countries in Western, Central & Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa with 3,836 hypermarkets and convenience stores. As part of the renewal, DHL International Supply Chain, the specialist supply chain management team of DHL Global Forwarding, will continue the nearly 10-year partnership by providing purchase order and vendor management, origin consolidation and destination coordination services.

DHL currently manages more than 17,000 TEUs yearly for Auchan from origin countries such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh to 14 destination countries including France, Russia and Senegal. The solution benefits Auchan by providing higher visibility as well as better control and predictability of their overall supply chain process.

“Our dual dedicated control tower structure – Hong-Kong at origin and Dunkirk in France, at destination – remains a key factor of successful coordination of day to day operations with customer’s teams in Asia and France; it ensures on-time arrivals of Auchan’s shipments using the most cost effective mode. DHL’s dedicated account management team holds the relationship with Auchan and drives the supply chain development agenda. We are very excited to carry on developing our ongoing collaboration with one of France’s retail leaders.” stated Pascal Zakarias, Head of Operations DHL International Supply Chain France.

The agenda focuses on cutting direct and indirect costs, increasing communication between teams, direct to market programs and value-added services all of which enabled Auchan to make savings as well as develop more efficient inbound supply chain operations and processes.

Auchan Retail International’s Head of Operations, Catherine Hennart, said: “Auchan has benefited from the partnership with DHL for nine years now and we want to continue benefiting from their experience which will help us maintain our position in the retail market by allowing us enhanced visibility on our processes and continued reductions on operating costs thanks to DHL International Supply Chain’s constant effort.”

Source: Deutsche Post DHL Group